While we lived in South Jordan, American Fork canyon became our family’s favorite canyon of all the beauties near Salt Lake City. It took a while to pinpoint what it was that made it special but we concluded that it was the untouched-ness of it.  The others are more developed, more civilized.  This one has minimal disruption of the natural beauty and we love it.  We’ve come early spring and camped with the tree buds, or early fall with the frost.  It’s nice to have a place that feels isolated in the mountains but with some novelties like an outhouse and water.

Sunday we left our Mountain Valley Resort and headed to church then to our family reunion.  We planned on going to Timpooneke but the Alpine Loop was closed due to a fire.  My brother and sister-in-law were kind enough to welcome everyone to their home until the road reopened the next morning.

Witnessing how cute Simon was singing Country Road take me home and finally getting to the word “down” (down country road – as we all played the game Encore) was like trying to capture a sunset through a photo.  So grateful to be in person with such sweetness.

Grandpa and Grandma have many talents and agreed to share some unique ones with all of us.  Grandpa taught us marbles and the art of bottlecap flipping.  Grandma taught how to dry flowers in silica sand and how to press leaves and flowers.

This is a short time-lapse of getting the trailer out of the campsite and on the road again.  Way to go Davie-o! And, on our hike we saw what we later learned was a rubber boa.

We laughed a lot and talked a lot, hiked and sang and climbed trees. I’m thankful for all the support outside of the official reunion too. I am so thankful for family and for this beautiful earth.

Ready or not (who is ever ready for a reunion?  Packing takes 9 years… this year was unusual for us!) the time is now to experience life together and to nourish relationships.